King Strider
by Signless
Summary: HumanStuck AU. DaveKar. Dave Strider is the leader of the high school bullies and Karkat is getting fed up. He wants to know why Dave hates him so much, but the question always eludes him. When he discovers the cool-kid crying in the gym locker room one day, maybe he'll finally get his chance to ask. He thinks he has Dave figured out, but nothing is as it seems. Cursing/future smut


_High school is hell_, Karkat thought as he was shoved into a locker. He snarled at the bullies and kneed the one closest to him, breaking his buddy's nose next. Pushing himself off the lockers, he tackled the third burly moron and gave a swift uppercut to his face. _Bet that feels good, huh, asshole?_

Karkat wasn't always bullied in school. Usually they'd leave him alone, since he was always such a hothead and could usually kick their asses twice as hard as they did his. Sometimes he wondered why it all started up when he switched over from homeschooling, but he already knew the reason.

He was a freak. A monster.

He wasn't like other kids. He was tan, more from his mother's Hispanic heritage than actually being outside, and he always wore black shirts and tight, ripped jeans. His messy hair always looked like he'd professionally styled it (though he swore up and down to John that he rarely brushed the damn hair, let alone _styled _it), and his favorite boots were obviously designer.

What was it the bullies summed up his look as? Oh, right. _Gay._

Not that he gave a rats what the brainless jocks thought, but the same insults were getting old and he was starting to get really fed up with these fuckasses. Every single day, they went out of their way to fuck up his routine. It'd been about a month since it all began, and Karkat was just about done with it all.

"What's wrong, freak?" The bully's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and Karkat glared at the fat fuck devilishly, tightening his grip on the guy's collar. "Mummy don't love you no more?"

Karkat's eyes tightened and he felt his lips curl back into a snarl. "What about you, did your mom feed you one too many Big Macs?"

The bully tensed at the insult, but he let it slide. Couldn't let the freak show know how much that pissed him off, right? Whatever, Karkat noticed anyway. Fucking loser. "Your mom _left_ you. Must've got tired of looking at her faggot kid." His friends, starting to recover from Karkat's assault, jeered at the burn. "What's with your eyes, anyway? _Normal _people don't have red eyes."

Smirking, Karkat loosened his grip on the fatty's shirt and said, "Normal people don't eat an entire pizza by themselves for lunch, either." Then, glad to have an excuse to do something, Karkat delivered another punch to the guy's gut and stormed off.

_Victory, bitches._

-x-

"You've got to be kidding me." John stared at the bruise on Karkat's neck and sighed, shaking his head. "I thought they would've learned to leave you alone by now, man."

"Yeah, that makes both of us, Egbert." Karkat sunk in his seat and scowled in their biology teacher's general direction. He hated school. It was a waste of time in his mind, but his dad would kill him if he dropped out. And like hell would he ever disappoint the old man. He'd already suffered enough.

"You have to tell someone, Karkat. I mean, I know you think you're badass, but it's not even funny anymore! Those guys are getting more and more violent by the day!" John hissed under his breath.

"Yeah, well, maybe you can ask that Strider asshole to lay off, then. You and I both know he's their pack leader or some shit. Maybe he can control the hellhounds." Karkat grumbled, glancing across the room at the blonde cool kid.

John winced. "Look, I've tried, okay? But he just doesn't listen… believe me, Karkat, I'd make him stop if I could, but he seems pretty dead set on making your life hell."

There was a moment of silence before it was interrupted by the bell. Karkat stood, gathering all of his unused supplies in a rush. "Why are you even friends with that dick, anyway?" he snapped harshly at John before he absconded the hell out of there.

Heh. He almost felt bad for treating John like that, but when he saw the resigned look on Dave Strider's face, he decided it was worth it.

-x-

_"Freak."_

_ "Homo!"_

_ "Ugh, look at his eyes… so weird…"_

Karkat clenched his teeth and gripped the sides of the sink tightly in his hands. Damn it all, he couldn't let those whiny idiots get to him like this! If he did, he'd lose. He'd lose the game, and they'd have one over on him.

_Karkat the freak._

_ Karkat the red-eyed Demon._

"Make it stop…" he whispered to himself, his body shaking. "God just make them stop!"

That was when he heard it. It was quiet, nearly silent, so he almost missed it completely, but he knew it was there. Letting go of the sink, Karkat turned to face the archway behind him, trying to determine where the sound came from.

_There!_

The sound came again from the other half of the room, where the locker room met with the bathroom, and Karkat ventured over cautiously. Jegus, what was it? It almost sounded like someone was _crying _in there. But who in their right mind would start breaking down in school of all places, and in the _men's locker room?_

Fucker had a death wish.

"Yo, fuckass, you alright in there?" Karkat called. The sounds stopped immediately and he heard shuffling in the next row. He rounded the corner quickly and froze in his tracks. "… holy shit." Karkat muttered as his brain finally registered who was standing in front of him. For a moment, he was tempted to smirk and laugh in the guy's face, but then he could just hear his dad bitching at him in his head, so he held back.

"Sup, Vantas." Dave Strider was the perfect picture of cool, as if he wasn't just sobbing his heart out in the boys locker room just a mere moment ago. Lucky (or not) for him, Karkat wasn't as much of a moron as everyone thought, so the mask didn't fool him for a second.

"You were crying." Karkat stated bluntly, wishing those dumb fucking glasses weren't hiding the guy's face. He crossed his arms and stared the guy down, still not sure whether he should be enjoying this moment like some sick fuck or actually concerned for the guy.

"Nah, man. I was being ironic, you know how it is." Dave replied smoothly, slipping by and putting his back to Karkat.

Karkat wasn't impressed. "You know, I'm not as much of a total asshat as you. I won't tell anyone I heard you crying in here like a fucking chick." He gazed at Dave's stoic face , staring at himself in his glasses' reflection. "No matter how much it makes me puke on the inside."

Dave was nonplussed, and for a moment, his cool slipped. "I make your life fuckin' miserable, and now you're telling me you wouldn't love to go around telling people how I acted like a pussy just now?"

"So you admit to crying." There was victory tinting Karkat's voice.

"Fuck you."

"Fuck yourself, fuckass."

"That's a lot of fucks. You kiss your mom with that mouth?"

"Shut up. I'm trying to be civil here and you're just being a dick." Karkat snapped, losing his patience quickly. Heh, maybe he _would _tell everyone this guy was a total wimp. But he wouldn't. He knew he wouldn't. "And I'm not saying I wouldn't like to do it- believe me, nothing would please me more than to see King Strider get kicked down a notch- but I won't. Unlike you, I have limits to my douchebaggery."

Dave turned back around and stared at Karkat, or at least he thinks he stared at him, because with those damn shades it was impossible to tell. "Why are you even in here, Vantas? You don't take gym."

"Neither do you, so fuck off. Now are you going to tell me why you were crying or not?"

"Not." Dave replied, making to leave.

"Then tell me something else."

Dave paused and sighed. "What do you want?"

Karkat uncrossed his arms and stared at Dave's back. "Why the hell do you hate me so much? The fuck did I ever do to you?"

"… I don't hate you, Vantas. If anything, I'm jealous of you." Dave replied quietly.

Then, the King was gone. And Karkat Vantas was officially confused as fuck.

**[[ So. Thanks for reading the first chapter! This is my pilot chapter, which if you don't know, basically means if I get good feedback on this, I'll continue it. If I don't, I'll probably drop it. So. Dave was kind of OOC in this chapter, but I have plans for it. So if you like this, please don't be afraid to leave a quick review or even a short note that you like this! Don't worry, Dave won't be as OOC later on. Just this chapter... and well maybe some others but I should stop talking. ]]**


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